Landscape response to tectonic forcing: Digital elevation model analysis of stream profiles in the Mendocino triple junction region, northern California

The topographic evolution of orogens is fundamentally dictated by rates and patterns of bedrock-channel incision. Quantitative field assessments of process-based laws are needed to accurately describe landscape uplift and denudation in response to tectonics and climate. We evaluate and calibrate the shear stress (or similar unit stream-power) bedrock-incision model by studying stream profiles in a tectonically active mountain range. Previous work on emergent marine terraces in the Mendocino triple junction region of northern California provides spatial and temporal control on rock-uplift rates. Digital elevation models and field data are used to quantify differences in landscape morphology associated with along-strike northwest to southeast changes in tectonic and climatic conditions. Analysis of longitudinal profiles supports the hypothesis that the study-area channels are in equilibrium with current uplift and climatic conditions, consistent with theoretical calculations of system response time based on the shear-stress model. Within uncertainty, the profile concavity (𝛉) of the trunk streams is constant throughout the study area (𝛉 ≈ 0.43), as predicted by the model. Channel steepness correlates with uplift rate. These data help constrain the two key unknown model parameters, the coefficient of erosion ( K ) and the exponent associated with channel gradient ( n ). This analysis shows that K cannot be treated as a constant throughout the study area, despite generally homogeneous substrate properties. For a reasonable range of slope-exponent values ( n ), best-fit values of K are positively correlated with uplift rate. This correlation has important implications for landscape-evolution models and likely reflects dynamic adjustment of K to tectonic changes, due to variations in orographic precipitation, and perhaps channel width, sediment load, and frequency of debris flows. The apparent variation in K makes a unique value of n impossible to constrain with present data.